The Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) 2009 Beauty Awards luncheon is as eagerly anticipated by those in the cosmetics and fragrance world, as actors anticipate the Academy Awards. Beauty and fragrance products are nominated and voted on electronically, in an industry-wide competition that includes nearly550 products entered and more than 260 brands, represented. This year’s content included 28 award categories and 140 finalists.

Winning one of these coveted awards doesn’t necessarily mean that it is endorsed by the CEW organization, but adding the award seal to a winning product is one more way that consumers can see that it is a unique, high performing product. Consumers want to purchase those products!

CEW is a non-profit professional organization has over 4,000 members — executives in the beauty, cosmetics, fragrance, and related industries. The annual awards luncheon is just one of the many activities. CEW was founded in 1954 as a social organization for professional women working in the cosmetics industry, but it has expanded to include charitable and educational activities, and industry development.

This was my fourth year covering the awards luncheon, a glittery affair in the elegant ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. The first year a few stragglers filled the first tier of the balcony. This year, all three tiers plus the main floor were packed with people (I think there were about 1,500 guests if I remember correctly). Each year, the charming (“Sex & the City”) actor Mario Cantone has held hosting honors, while celebrities du jour help present the coveted, crystal awards to industry execs for specific products in myraid beauty categories. This year presenters included Style & Beauty Expert Gretta Monahan (from Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style); Creative Director of Barneys New York Simon Doonan; Michelle Obama’s makeup artist, Ingrid Grimes-Myles; and four of the Bravo reality show Real Housewives of New York City’s stars: Jill Zarin, Alex MCCord, Luann Delesseps, and Romona Singer. Here are some of my personal photos from the event:

During the cocktail hour there was some time to photograph the presenters. Included with the 4 housewives of NYC presenters was Mario Cantone and some of the executives from CEW.

Four of the reality stars from the “Real Housewives of NYC shared presenter duties (From L-R: Countess LuAnne DeLessops, Ramona Singer, Zill Zarin, Alex McCord). I overheard Alex gushing: “I’ve been to a lot of events, but I’ve never been a presenter before”

The style maven Simon Doonan was also a presenter. Here he poses with Mario, the housewives, and some of the other stylish presenters (I think one was singer Chantelle and the other is a stylist with Rachel Ray)

Jill Zarin and Ramona Singer present awards

LuAnne and Alex prested awards…this one is a shot of the wide screens used in the huge ballroom, but I liked the way their faces were overlayed (for just a second) with the name of the category they were announcing! Cool, isn’t it?

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